Author Archive

James Ferraro, the retro wizard of Venice Beach, has taken his time getting to pop music. He’s churned through a handful of pseudonyms pushing southern California’s noise and tape scene into strange territory. And although his ambient works were largely responsible for hypnogogic pop’s stylesheet, this latest Condo Pets EP signals another new direction. Condo‘s version of 80s texture feels remarkably sober compared to the heavy synth waves of the past year. Featherweight hip-hop and electro drums mix with bouncy orchestral samples that could’ve been Moon Safari demos.

One commonality between Ferraro’s releases is an obsession with mainstream culture. Here he cuts in sounds from Toy Story and titles songs things like, “Find Out Whats On Carrie Bradshaw’s iPod”. Luckily, these references don’t overshadow the delicate compositions in place, and I am hoping the announced Far Side Virtual LP will be a full-length sequel to this new found sound.

I’ve had this new video for Teamm Jordann (Teams + Daytime Television) basically on loop for the past 24 hours. This collaboration brings hard drums, super decadent overtones, and lots of #hashtag worthy adjectives. It comes from the first Sewage Tapes mixer, which packs 25 jams for $3 USD, what more do you need?

If you’re a nerd like me you probably put off starting your day to watch the shuttle Atlantis launch this morning. I complimented my viewing experience with some background music by the prolific Bong Rodent, an anagram of it’s creator Ben Trogdon. This was an excellent decision because his beats have that cold retro-future vibes of Warp’s heyday lineup. Most of these tracks rock a killer wonky bounce but there’s some great ambient experiments at work here too. My favorite release is Stuck Up, Shot Down (free dl) but I suggest you just dive into his Soundcloud and poke around, here’s two to get you started:

Indiana native Spirit Spine recently unveiled his new concept album Glossolalia, which he dedicates to, “famed skeptic and magician James Randi.” Over nine tracks of hypnotic drum beats and rising layers of guitar ambience unfolds a Jodorowski-like story of a priest crash-landed in the desert. Fittingly so, this set of jams is devoid of the tropicalism from previous efforts, actually, the album sounds more appropriate for morning prayer than an after dinner spliff. Take the desolate guitar work of Amen Dunes, mix it with Deacon’s ceremonial tones, and your on the right track. When the lo-fi scene exploded, pushing most new artists into garage or electronic sub-genres, folk music seemingly became a stale effort (how many bearded bands are you excited to see at SXSW this year? none). Glossolalia manages to bring back those rustic devices on tracks like “Thirst” and fuse them into something modern. This is awesome stuff.

Alto Jeffro hails from Gardener, MA (furniture capital of America). With help from his friend Barney the Brit they put together two albums worth of music in the past couple months: Bangin’ on a Chair and Do You Dream in Jeffro? This 26-track collection runs from crooning basement pop like “Elastick” to the gargled riffs and Fall-inspired vocal mayhem of songs like “Underneath She’s a Sweetheart”. Alto’s amateur surgery of simple melodies takes him to some awesomely weird places where hooks randomly form out of goofy space noise and pop is nothing to be afraid of. The two are currently practicing for some up-coming local shows including a few here in Boston.